During production and use of a display device, static electricity will be generated at the inside thereof. The generated static electricity will be accumulated in the display device if not released in time. When the static electricity is accumulated into a certain amount, an instantaneous discharge will occur and a high current will be generated, which is an ESD (Electro Static Discharge) phenomenon. The ESD phenomenon may cause a burnout of integrated circuits or internal wirings of the display device, as a result of which the display device fails to work normally. Therefore, it is necessary to provide an antistatic protection for the display device.
At present, a common antistatic protection is as follows. An antistatic layer made of ITO material is disposed on a color filter substrate or a polarizer of the display device. A transparent cover plate is disposed on the antistatic layer so as to protect the antistatic layer. The antistatic layer and a grounding pad provided on an array substrate of the display device are electrically connected to each other so that the generated static electricity is led to the grounding pad through the antistatic layer. However, in such an arrangement, since the antistatic layer covers the display region and the antistatic layer made of ITO material has a refractive index different from that of the base substrate made of glass in the display device, a refraction of light will occur when the light passes through the antistatic layer, which leads to a loss of light and a reduction of light transmittance.
Another antistatic protection of the conventional art is such that an antistatic ring surrounding the display region is disposed on the color filter substrate. To ensure the charge transport performance of the antistatic ring, the antistatic ring is required to have a certain line width. However, in a display device with narrow bezel, the edge of the color filter substrate has a very narrow region in which the antistatic ring can be disposed, so that it is not allowed to provide an antistatic ring having a good charge transport performance.